Presence management in a push to talk system

Abstract

A presence management system for a cellular-based Push-to-Talk (PTT) service. The PTT infrastructure obtains presence-relevant network status information from elements of the cellular network and of the overlying data network such as the home location registers (HLRs) of the mobile switching centers (MSCs) and the Authentication Authorization and Accounting (AAA) element of the data network. Additionally, the presence management system may communicate with other networked resources such as a Short Messaging Service (SMS) center, a Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) server, a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) center, a BREW download server, or others, to obtain information about the activities of subscriber mobile phones that can be used to determine their presence. The presence management system operates in accordance with a set of configurable rules to update presence status and to provide PTT subscribers with presence status updates. Presence updates can be delivered to subscribers via Short Messaging Service (SMS) messaging or via sessions over the data network. The updates can be made in conjunction with or after a PTT call session or attempted session or can be initiated by the presence management system or a subscriber mobile phone independently of call activity.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to systems and methods for managing information regarding the availability of members of a talk group in a push to talk (or dispatch or group calling) system, particularly a cellular telephone based push to talk or group calling system. BACKGROUND INFORMATION [0002] The present invention relates to managing presence in a push to talk service on a cellular telephone network. Such a service is also commonly referred to as a group calling or dispatch communications service, but for simplicity will be referred to herein with the acronym “PTT.”[0003] Presence relates to the ability to know with a reasonable degree of certainty whether a fellow call group member or “buddy” is available to participate in a communication session (i.e., PTT call or group call) over the network. [0004] PTT services allow mobile phone users to engage in nearly instantaneous conversation with the simple press of a button. Generally, during a Push to Ta...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The potentially wide geographical distribution of PTT call participants adds additional complexity to the management of presence.

During that period, one or more members of a call group can become active or inactive, rendering the presence information provided in the previous update inaccurate.

Furthermore, the aforementioned approach is inefficient for several reasons.

Such messaging is mostly redundant and unnecessary given most subscribers leave their phone on for most of the day.

Second, the presence updates are accomplished using a fundamental channel, which is an expensive network resource that is essentially being used to support overhead signaling (i.e., for presence management).

Third, since presence updates are performed over the fundamental channel, these sessions impact voice call delivery.

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